


Korrasami Month 2015 Work

by LightInside



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Asami's POV, Attraction, F/F, Fluff, Korrasami Month, Korrasami Month 2015, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-04-29 13:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5129720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightInside/pseuds/LightInside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My Korrasami Month fanfiction! Rather than ten separate prompts, I'm writing 10 chapters of a single story! Each chapter will follow the prompt suggestion for that set of days, in order! I'm really excited about this challenge!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Workout

The electronic music flooded my perception as I watched the subtitles scroll across the bottom of the muted TV. I could feel the sweat pooling under my arms and trickling down to my sports bra, but I refused to slow down. My quick pace matched time with the rhythm of my music, but my attention was split between the news story and the treadmill's readout. This portion of my workout was almost over, and this was the third time this month that Republic City was in hysterics about the masked vigilante who had begun helping the police. Nobody knew where she had come from, and she never stopped to talk to anyone. She just showed up, saved people, caught a criminal, and disappeared. As far as anyone could tell, she stood for peace and safety, and it didn't matter what the cause of the problem was, she was ready to meet it head on and help anyone in need. She was exactly the kind of hero I wanted to stand for, and I couldn't have been happier to have her protecting the city I had loved all my life.

The press had taken to calling her Elemental, and last night she had stopped a madman with some kind of flying tank from demolishing the president's office building. He got away, but thanks to her there were no casualties and only three injuries, and since the incident the news had aired little else besides the footage a helicopter managed to capture of her. Her costume was formfitting, a fact I certainly didn't mind, but it covered her completely apart from the lower half of her face. I supposed that was necessary for the anonymity she needed, but I couldn't help my desire to meet her. Even if it was with the mask, I wanted to tell her how inspiring she was and find out what she really stood for.

The news story finally flipped back to the anchor before moving on to a different segment, and I pressed the stop button on the treadmill. As I gradually jogged down to a stop, I removed one of my ear buds and watched the display on the machine flash my stats several times before clearing for the next use: forty-five minutes, 5.7 miles, 600 calories, 9087 steps. When the belt came to a halt, I picked up my water bottle and towel then stepped off the back. I pulled my dark ponytail over my shoulder and wiped the perspiration from the back of my neck before draping the towel over my shoulders. As I uncapped the water bottle and lifted it to my crimson-coated lips, I tried to gauge how much energy I had left and made my way into the weightlifting portion of the gym. I didn't want to neglect my arms completely that day, so I thought I would get in a few reps with some of the free weights.

I was a little surprised to see a small crowd gathered around one of the bench presses. Most of the other patrons had stopped their exercising and were gazing that direction as well, slight murmurs running through the onlookers. I craned my neck and peered around them. I recognized Mako first, standing behind the bar as a spotter. He had been my lab partner in chemistry the previous semester and was in physics with me now. I recognized his brother Bolin as well, a second spotter. I had only met him once or twice, but most of the campus recognized the two of them from intramural rugby, where their team was sweeping this year. They took second last year, but hadn't lost a game since their newest member joined.

I finally looked down to the bench to see the brand new rugby star herself, Korra. I should have known from the crowd. If I was honest with myself, she was really hot. I didn't know her personally, just from watching her games and Mako talking about her, but from what I could tell she was actually kind of a jerk. She was so overconfident and full of herself. Something about her just made me uneasy. Her physique was extremely distracting, though. I saw her at the gym sometimes, maybe once every other week. Every time she was there, she was showing off, and I could never help watching her, just like I rarely was able to talk to Mako about his plays from the games because my eyes were always on her. That day, she was benching what was obviously a ridiculous amount. I watched her continue through five more reps before she set the bar back on the stand, gesturing at the brothers. They gave each other uneasy looks before Mako leaned over to meet Korra's eyes.

"Are you sure, Korra?"

"Just add the weight, I can do it," Korra boasted.

Bolin squatted down next to her. "You don't usually go this long. Mako just doesn't want you to pull something before the competition."

"I know, Bo. I'll be fine, I can do it."

The two exchanged another look before each adding another five pounds to the bar. "How long has she been at this?" I asked quietly over the shoulder of the guy in front of me.

"This is her eighth set. She keeps upping the weight every time, too. She's nuts."

I counted quickly along the weights and realized just how much she was trying to bench. With that addition, she was going for over five hundred pounds. _I didn't know she was **that** strong,_ I thought to myself. _She must be getting exhausted._ I watched as she settled in and squared her shoulders before slowly lifting the bar off of its stand. With a measured pace and deliberate breathing, she lowered the massive weight to her chest, then slowly pressed it upwards until her arms were extended again. I rolled my eyes and shook my head slightly at the display. She was definitely showing off, but it _was_ impressive.

_And kind of really hot._ I mentally swatted myself for the thought, but couldn't take my eyes off her as she repeated the motion. My gaze trailed along her arms, from her strong hands all the way to her powerful shoulders, as I watched the muscles slowly shift below the smooth brown skin. I felt a heat rising in my core and tried to ignore it. Her reps were slow and precise, and I watched intently through all ten of them despite the goose bumps that spread across my arms. As she set the bar back on its stand, I realized I was chewing on my lower lip.

I finally looked away as she sat up, only to catch Mako's eye. He had obviously spotted me and had been watching my reactions the entire time. He smirked and quirked one eyebrow. I felt my cheeks flush and I deliberately took a swig from my water bottle. He coughed nonchalantly as Bolin gave Korra a hand up. A small round of applause rolled through the onlookers, and a few casually voiced their compliments to her as the crowd started to disperse. I turned with them, intending to finish my workout with some of the more reasonable weight sets, when a hand fell onto my shoulder lightly.

"Hey Asami." The tone of Mako's greeting was just far enough outside of smug to be friendly as I turned back to face him. "Fancy seeing you here." Bolin paused his conversation to shout his own hello at me and wave over Mako's shoulder. I returned the gesture as I also returned Mako's wit.

"I'm here four times a week, what about you?"

"Well, uh, you know, I mostly let practice be the workout,” he shrugged sheepishly. “Anyway, have you done the insulator resistance homework yet?"

I shook my head. "I haven't bothered. You know I've been wiring circuits with my dad since I could walk, I haven't been worried enough about it to rush."

"Right... well, when you do get to it, will you let me know? I'm pretty sure I'm doing number four wrong and wanna know what answer you get."

"Of course. I'll probably do it tomorrow night. I'll text you?"

"Sounds great. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. I have a meeting scheduled with my dad soon and want to get a few weights in first, I'll talk to y--"

A brown arm suddenly slung itself around Mako's neck and tugged him down a little. "Hey Mako! Who's your friend?" Her voice was upbeat, but the way she emphasized the word 'friend' didn't sit well with me. My brief relationship with Mako the previous year was still a bit of a sore spot. Still, I tried not to give her too mean of a look.

"Oh, uh... This is Asami. Asami, this is--"

"Korra, I know. I recognize you from Mako's rugby matches. You're pretty good."

"Thanks," she intoned, flexing the arm that wasn't half-strangling Mako.

I tried to avoid staring at the bulging bicep and failed. I shook my head to clear it before pointedly turning my attention to the weights I still hadn't made it to. "Anyway, I should really get--"

"So YOU'RE Asami, huh," she interrupted. I felt my jaw clench and tried not to grind my teeth. "I heard you're the only reason this knucklehead passed chemistry," she smirked, releasing our mutual friend before elbowing him in the ribs. I watched another woman pick up the last unoccupied weight set and resigned myself to talking a bit longer.

"Yeah, that's me," I tried to smile as I turned back to her. "He's not as bad as that, he's just too focused on his job and lets his school work suffer."

Korra laughed, full bodied and hearty, and I couldn't help feeling like it was at Mako's expense. I was being serious. "Yup, that's our workaholic!" Mako gave her a friendly punch in the arm and she shrugged him off. She calmed down quickly and immediately jumped to a different topic. "So, what'd you think of the show," she asked, flexing again. I wetted my lips but managed to avoid biting them as her bicep made another appearance. _At least she admits she's showing off._

"Really impressive," I reluctantly admitted. "I can't bench half that. And you don't even look like you broke a sweat." She really didn't. She was so energetic I would have thought she was just getting ready to start, not just finishing, and there was no sign of perspiration. I was a mess by comparison after my run.

"Heh, yeah, I don't really sweat much," she shrugged, running a hand through her short hair to the back of her neck. The bob cut tumbled back down to frame her face perfectly; her stupid, stunning face with her beautiful, cocky, crooked grin. I found myself staring again and knew I had to get out of there.

"Well, I need to finish my workout before my appointment. It was nice meeting you, Korra."

"Likewise, Asami." Korra's grin never wavered as she extended her hand. I hesitated just a beat before shaking it and wasn't surprised by the force she put into it. "Mako's told me a lot about you. I hope I'll see you around."

I couldn't help quirking an eyebrow at that. I tried to read the look she was giving me and came up empty. Only then did I realize that I hadn't actually responded to her. "Um, yeah. Sure." She nodded once and I wished she would stop grinning. The overconfident smirk pissed me off, but damn if it wasn't gorgeous. "I'll see you guys later." I waved to Bolin who was setting up the bench for himself, then turned my attention to Mako. "I'll text you," I told him pointedly. He smirked and I turned away toward the weights, one last glimpse of Korra's smile making my ears burn.

As I sat down on a bench to wait for a set to come free, I glanced over my shoulder. The three of them were chatting, but not for long as Mako and Korra headed for the exit while Bolin took his place on the bench press, another rugby teammate spotting for him. Equipment was ready for me before long and I did my best to put in a few reps, but I repeatedly found myself just staring at the floor and losing count.

I couldn't get the last thing Korra said to me out of my head. _"I hope I'll see you around." What did she mean by that? Mako and I are friends, but what could he have possibly told her about me to make her say that? And what was with that stupid grin? She doesn't even know me. What does she care if I liked her ridiculous, incredible, self-aggrandizing, sexy muscle show? If I didn't know better, I'd think she was flirting... Oh no..._

I immediately gave up on weight lifting and pulled out my phone, typing a quick message to Mako as I headed for the locker room. ‘Is Korra straight?’ I didn't get a response until I was tying my hair up further before showering. I grabbed my phone as it stopped buzzing and slid the lock open. It buzzed again with a second text before I even had the first one open, and a third before I could finish reading the first two.

‘She asked “Is it Asami?” as soon as my phone went off’  
‘She says no’  
‘She says to tell you her number is 282-8277’

I dropped my phone back into my gym bag and buried my face in my hands.


	2. Superheroes

The next morning, my sleep was rudely interrupted by my text message alert. I rolled over with a groan and squinted at the clock across the room. My alarm was set to go off in twenty minutes. I sighed and buried my face in my pillow. All my important contacts had their own unique message tones, and this was none of those, so I decided to close my eyes for those last twenty minutes. Anyone who contacted me that infrequently could wait.

Those twenty minutes felt like five, and before I knew it I was groaning through the blaring alarm before I could turn it off. Once that notification was gone, the one for the text message took over the screen space, and I read it curiously. It was from a number that wasn't in my phone. 'You wanna meet for lunch? 1230 at that noodle place in the student center?' I almost texted back 'Who is this' before the 8277 at the end rang a bell. Korra.

I practically growled. Mako had betrayed me and given her my number too. I must have told him about my feelings on Korra a dozen times. He knew how much this was going to drive me crazy. I sighed and stared at the text for a solid five minutes before closing the app and going to get ready for the day. I spent my time in the shower trying to think of the best way to get back at Mako, but nothing really came to mind.

While I did my hair, I opened the app on my phone for my favorite local radio station to pick up on the news for the day. The previous day must have been slow for news because the casters were still speculating on Elemental. One of them was convinced she was from one of the poles by her skin tone, a relatively narrow demographic in the city, but the other wasn't so sure, seeing as how over half of the world's supers could change their appearance at will. They wondered about her powers too. She'd been seen controlling earth, wind, and fire, so they assumed she could use water as well, and she had shown super strength once. One postulated that she had a premonition sense for danger, the other argued against that and suggested she was more likely to have a network of informants.

As interesting as the conversation was, I didn't particularly care who she was or what her powers were. She was using them to help people, even in minor crises where another super might only step in for big things, and that was enough for me. My thoughts drifted away from Korra and Mako as I tried to devise a plan to meet her. Everything that crossed my mind was laughable or life-threatening though.

My thoughts were driven away from Elemental when another message came through from Korra that just said 'No pressure'.  I still couldn't decide what I wanted my answer to be. I flipped over to my weather app instead and saw that it was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous out that day. I pulled open the shades to my window and lifted the pane, humming to myself with a smile as a balmy breeze rolled in. The sky was already a pale blue with only a couple of fluffy white clouds. I propped the window open for the day and turned off the thermostat before grabbing my things and heading to class.

Korra's texts continued to plague me on my walk to campus. I was pretty sure I was going to turn her down... part of me wanted to give her a chance, but then again I really didn't. It seemed like everything that came out of her mouth made me grit my teeth, and her overwhelming hotness would just make the whole lunch torture. Not to mention I had a class from noon to one, so I would have to skip it if I was going to meet her. But she _was_ really hot, and maybe she would grow on me...

I realized halfway through physics that I hadn't been listening to a single thing the professor said. Instead, I had been mindlessly sketching Korra's arms and trying to decide if I was going to skip class or not. I felt a tap on the back of my seat and turned around give Mako a glare. His eyebrows shot up as he pointedly glanced at my notebook. I intensified my glare and flipped to a different page. "You can borrow my notes," he teased in a low voice.

"I hate you," I breathed back. His smirk widened and I turned back around, but my attention still didn't find the professor. Instead, I slipped my phone out of my pocket and opened the texts from Korra. If I was absentmindedly drawing her muscles in class, I definitely wasn't ready to spend a whole lunch with her alone. I needed more time to process.

'I have a noon class, maybe some other time'

The response was almost immediate. 'K, have a good one'

I didn't know how to take that. _Is she upset and being dismissive? Is she actually being chill and it was just casual from the beginning? Why do I give a shit? I literally just met her and she's kind of an ass. That ass though... God damn it._ I sighed at myself and massaged one of my temples.

Physics ended not long after that and Mako caught me as I made my way outside, falling into step beside me. "So, did she text you?"

I shot him a derisive look. "Yes, and I kind of can't believe you gave her my number. If I wanted her to have it, I could have texted her myself since you gave me hers."

"You want her to have it. Trust me. I think you two would really hit it off."

"Are you kidding me? Her ego is bigger than my dad's house. And you've _seen_ my dad's house--"

"It has nine bathrooms," he nodded sagely.

I ignored the comment. "There is _no way_ we would get along."

"Then why do you like her so much?"

"I don't!" I practically yelled at him before taking a deep breath to find my composure. "I've admitted it before, she's attractive... she's really hot. But I am not interested."

"Your notes seem to disagree."

"Fuck off." He grinned and I punched him in the arm. He shoved me back playfully before pulling me into a hug.

"Just give her a shot? She likes you, and you're at least into her. She might surprise you."

I sighed again and returned the hug. "Fine. She invited me to lunch today, but I have a class. I'll schedule something else with her."

"Great. Let me know how it goes. And don't forget to text me about the homework."

"Don't worry, I will," I reassured him, breaking the hug.

"Good. Thanks."

"I still hate you."

"You do not. See you later."

He turned and jogged off toward his next class, and I returned to my path toward mine. It didn't start for another half hour, but I liked to get there early for a little socializing or studying. The classroom was right next to the professor's office too, and he held office hours just before class, so he always had it open early.

Except for that day, apparently. I arrived to find the door locked and the lights off. The door to his office was the same. A note taped to the inside of the door's window informed me that he was cancelling class for the day to deal with a family emergency. I wished he would email the class when he had to cancel, but he was one of those teachers who has his way of doing things and doesn't want to change.

I pulled my phone back out to check the time. 11:41. I stared at it until the minute rolled over before sighing yet again. "I told him I would. Might as well get this over with." I flipped to my texting app and tapped the contact I had labeled "Sexy Jerk". 'My class is cancelled, still want to meet up for lunch?'

Part of me hoped she wouldn't respond, but my phone buzzed within seconds again. 'Totally! 1230 still good?' _Has she just been **waiting** for me to text her all day?_

'Yeah, I'll be there' I sent back. With nothing better to do, I took a leisurely walk around campus. The textbooks I always brought to my classes made the strap of my bag dig into my shoulder despite the shawl I wore over my blouse. True to the forecast, it was a beautiful fall day. The leaves were just beginning to change, and while the sun felt wonderful on my skin, a soft breeze kept it from being too warm. The campus was bustling as noon neared, then empty and silent with everyone gone to classes once it passed. The quiet calm was nice at first, but before long it became smothering, surrounded by the school's buildings and trees. I made my way to the streets that encircled the university and found the ambience of passing traffic more relaxing.

Around 12:15, I stopped at the corner of campus nearest my apartment building. I was just turning back toward the student center at the heart of the grounds when my phone buzzed again. I pulled it out to another text from Korra. ‘Something came up, gotta reschedule. Sorry! I'll text you later’. I put my phone back in my pocket without bothering to respond and set off toward my apartment instead. My classes were done for the day, and Dad wasn't expecting me at Future Industries until two, so I decided to have lunch at home and try to get some homework done during my unexpected free time.

That is, until I noticed the plume of smoke coming from my block.

I broke into a sprint, clutching my bag to my side as I kept my eyes on the black cloud billowing over the city skyline. I rounded the corner onto my street and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. My building wasn't the one burning. It was safe, though it was directly across from an inferno. I could feel the heat of the flames as I made my way across the street toward home. Firefighters were just arriving on the scene, so it must have really gotten out of hand fast.

Even at that distance, the heat was strong enough that I decided to avoid the front entrance to my building. Instead, I headed around the back, figuring I could take the fire escape up since I had left my window open. The intensity of the flames behind me quickly died off in the narrow alley between the cold brick of the my apartments and the business next to it. When I reached the corner of the building, I took a couple of quick steps before jumping into and then off of the wall for the height I needed to grab the spring-loaded ladder. It was new and well made, and it slid down for my access easily, with hardly a sound. I scaled it quickly before climbing the zigzagging steps up to the fourth floor where my room was.

I was just about to climb in through my window when I caught motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked down over the railing and was immediately confused. Korra had stumbled around the other end of the building, one hand braced against the wall as she leaned over and coughed. Her hair and clothing were both smudged with soot and were obviously singed. _Was she in the fire?_

I was about to call out to her when she stood up and took a deep breath, moving her hands in toward her chest, then slowly away as she exhaled. A small trail of smoke came out with her breath, and she seemed to have immediately recovered. Then she shifted forcefully into a wide stance, and a small square hole opened up in the ground next to her feet. I blinked in shock, not sure what I was seeing, until she quickly stripped off her shirt and pants, leaving something of a blue jumpsuit in their place. She pulled a roll from her bag, unfurling it into a pair of stiff cloth boots as well as a pair of gloves with long sleeves that stretched all the way to her shoulders and seemed to attach to her top as she pulled them on. My mouth was hanging agape as she dropped her discarded clothing and her bag into the hole in the ground before sealing it up. The last thing she put on was a mask, almost like a hood, that easily engulfed her hair and covered everything from her neck up, save for her eyes and the lower half of her face. A whirlwind kicked up underneath her feet, and scarcely a minute after she had arrived, she whooshed back around the corner of the building and was gone.

I stared after her, mind frozen until it suddenly started racing. "Korra? Elemental?"


	3. Warm

_No, she must just look like Korra. I'm probably imagining it._ To find out, I pulled my phone out of pocket and dialed Korra's number. It rang twice before I heard a sound that wasn't coming from my phone. I put the receiver down and listened. It was the ringtone I’d heard from Korra's phone at the gym numerous times, and as I peered over the railing of the fire escape again, it was clearly coming from the spot where Elemental had just buried her things. I hung up the phone and the ringtone ceased. I couldn't explain that away.

I had no idea how to feel about that. _Well, I guess I don't have to worry about how I'm going to meet Elemental any more. I can just call her. How could that obnoxious showoff be the superhero who has been helping the city for weeks? Does this mean Korra isn't as bad as I thought? Or are Elemental's efforts not completely altruistic?_ After everything she had done to save people she didn't even know, I couldn't imagine that Elemental was far below what I thought of her, so there was only one alternative. I found my opinion of Korra improving dramatically right away.

Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I climbed through my window and into my apartment, trying to decide what to do. I strode quickly across the space and out into the hallway, down the corridor to the window that looked out on the street below. Elemental was there, standing just yards away from the burning building. My eyes were fixed on her as she flexed and strained, displaying her powers by alternately lowering the flames then dousing them with water in sections. The firefighters helped keep the flames down once she had reduced each area, and after several minutes, they seemed to get the blaze under control. Abandoning her efforts to fight the fire directly, she instead dashed into the still-burning ruin to search for survivors. The flames died around her as she entered before roaring back to full strength once she had passed.

I watched intently, hoping her efforts wouldn't be in vain and that she made it out okay. The flames dimmed at the doorway again a moment later, and she emerged with a mother and son who had happened to have a flame retardant space blanket on hand that had saved them. They huddled together as they were ushered across the street by rescue workers, paramedics waiting to tend to their burns. Another trip inside brought one of the TAs for last year's chemistry class to safety. He coughed violently as he was practically dragged to the waiting medical workers, and she sprinted back in to find more lives to save.

On this third trip, the supports for the first floor gave out, and the entire building imploded, crashing down and in on itself without warning. A huge cloud of dust and debris, all smoldering and full of embers, burst out from the impact, all the material turning to rubble in seconds. I gasped at the scene of destruction unfolding in front of me, my nose nearly pressed to the thin pane of glass separating me from the remains of the now demolished building.

As the dust cleared and more water blasted into the now open area, quelling the flames that were now exposed, I focused on the center of the ruin. A powerful vortex of air swirled rapidly in a tight ball, and as it slowly died away, Elemental stood in the middle of the rubble, three more survivors hunkered down at her feet. She had apparently sensed the building giving out in time and made a protective bubble for all of them. Debris lay scattered nearby, including a heavy beam still burning not a foot away from her clear area, but everything close to her was untouched.

She helped the rescued stand, carrying one unconscious over her shoulder while providing support for another, and guided them out of the destroyed building. Once they were safe and it was clear the fire would be squelched within minutes, she quickly whipped up another whirlwind and zoomed away. I watched her until she was out of my sight, then rushed back to my apartment and out onto the fire escape. I didn't expect her to come back here immediately, she would probably change back into street clothes somewhere else, but she had left her phone so I didn't expect her to be long. I took a seat on the grated platform, resting my back against the wall.

While I waited, I pulled out my phone and texted my dad. ‘Can’t make it to work today, friend’s apartment building just burned down, gonna help her. I’ll call you later’. He sent a response after a few minutes, ‘Ok, love you’. I sat in silence after that, sure Korra would show up any minute.

I wasn't disappointed, and she arrived back in the alley before even half an hour had passed. I waited until she'd reopened her hole in the ground before sending her a text. 'Did you see that huge fire on 12th street?' Her phone sounded from her bag immediately, and she pulled it out right away. I saw her typing, and a moment later my phone chimed at receiving her message, 'Yeah, crazy right?'. The message alert was easily loud enough for her to hear, and she froze mid-step before slowly looking up to where I was sitting. I waved down at her as the color drained from her face.

"Asami! Um, hi! I was just, uh..." She glanced back toward the hole in the ground she'd just sealed up. "How long have you been sitting up there?"

"About half an hour. But I saw you before that. I was here when you dropped your stuff off. I know, Korra." Her eyes drifted as her mind clearly began racing. "You should come up. I can help you take care of those burns."

She peered up at me and I could see the debate going on in her head. After a few seconds, she nodded, then looked around the alley, scanning the nearby buildings too. Even though she saw no one, she still made her way around to the fire escape and climbed it up rather than using her powers. When she arrived on my landing, I gave her the warmest smile I could muster given the circumstances and my even more mixed feelings on her, then led the way inside.

She followed me in and I headed to the kitchen. I pulled an icepack out of the freezer and got a towel from a drawer to wrap it in before passing it to her. She pressed it to her bare arm and I watched her muscles tense from the cold. I turned away and started digging through another drawer so that she wouldn't see my face flush. "I'm pretty sure I have some antibiotic ointment here somewhere."

"Thanks," she said from behind me.

"No problem. I figured you’d rather not explain to paramedics how you got them or why they didn't see you at the scene."

"Yeah, I'd have a hard time coming up with a convincing lie for why two-thirds of my body is covered in burns but they're all minor," she laughed.

"That suit of yours must be pretty amazing," I observed, wetting a washcloth and turning around with the ointment that had been sitting at the front of the drawer the entire time. She had taken a seat on the kitchen's island counter and moved the icepack to her other arm.

"Yeah, my mom made it. She's great... Can I have some water, actually? Just, like, in a bowl or something? I can take care of most of this myself."

"Oh, uh, sure," I said, grabbing a bowl from the cabinet and filling it up from the tap. "What do you mean 'take care' of it?"

I found out almost immediately when the water lifted out of the bowl and started to glow as she moved it onto her skin. She let out a relieved sigh, and I watched as the skin beneath slowly returned to its normal color as she moved the glowing globe of water to cover more areas. "Perks of superpowers," she smiled. “I may not have super regeneration or anything, but I can heal stuff with water.” I watched in fascination of her powers. Soon, her arms and legs were as good as new. "I can't see or reach my back to heal there though. Have to do it the old fashioned way. Could you give me a hand?"

"Okay," I heard myself say, still entranced by the rippling muscles beneath the brown skin in front of me. I realized what I had agreed to when she turned away from me and lifted her shirt. From her slightly hunched over position, it seemed like every muscle and tendon in her back stood out. Heat crept up my face and my ears felt like they were on fire. She shifted and every one of those muscles and tendons slid smoothly under her skin to match her new position. I realized that the only part of her back I couldn't see was the part underneath the band of her sports bra. I swallowed thickly and bit my lip hard.

I realized I had been staring an entirely inappropriate amount of time when her voice cut through the scenarios playing in my head. "Asami?"

"Yeah! Sorry, got it." I got the wet washcloth, the ointment, and the icepack ready, and started to reach out to touch her bare, sexy, muscular back, but froze half way. I managed to focus enough to avoid another awkward staring session and a thought occurred to me. "You should probably lie down, actually. We'll want to keep the area cold with fresh water and the ice for at least twenty minutes."

"Good thinking," she said, hopping down from her seat. "Um... just, on the floor?"

"We can do it on my" _bed_ "couch. It'll be easier on both of us that way." She nodded and turned to face me so that I could lead the way. Her shirt was still off and her stomach was somehow even more toned than her back, and I almost couldn't believe that that was possible. Not to mention that she was just standing there in her bra, something that she was obviously comfortable doing despite barely knowing me. Even through the sports bra, her breasts looked incredible. _How is she THIS flawless?_ Heat rose through my core again as I felt my arousal settle in. _Okay, okay, remember she's self-absorbed and egotistical. She's not **completely** perfect. But she **is** Elemental... so is she really self-absorbed and egotistical? Or is she altruistic and self-sacrificing? Shit._

She lowered herself onto the couch on her stomach, arms folded to rest her head on her hands, which only made her shoulders and upper back flex and my heart race. I did my best to compose myself as I sat down on the floor, looking over the incredible expanse of brown skin that it was now my job to get wet and oily. Obviously, I completely failed. _Say something before you start soaking through your pants. Conversation will distract from... this._

The problem there was that I only had one thing in my head. "Your muscles are incredible." _Fuck._

"What?"

"Your super strength," I recovered. "Benching 500 pounds without breaking a sweat?" I spread the washcloth over her back, hiding it from view. The heat from the burns and her skin quickly permeated the thin rag, heating the water within it and soaking up into my hand. I tried not to think about the muscles underneath as I rubbed lightly and she responded to my observation.

"Oh, yeah. I actually usually lift lighter things. Controlling it can be tricky sometimes. You ever go to push on a heavy door and it turns out it's not anywhere near as heavy as you thought? Well, now imagine that when you push too hard, the door breaks off the hinges and embeds itself in the wall. I don't have a problem with regular day-to-day stuff, but it's easy to overdo it if I have to exert myself, so I practice."

I pulled the cloth back, reaching for the antibiotic ointment instead. Starting with a small dose, I spread it across her lower back before getting more and working my way up. The ointment started out cool against my fingers, but quickly became warm as it formed a layer between my skin and hers. Despite the sensations, my focus was on what she was saying, thankfully. "So benching 500 pounds was you practicing not using too much force? How much would it take to give you a real workout?"

"A 500-pound hand weight would be a start." I started laughing before realizing she was serious. "I haven't ever tried to find my upper limit, but I'm pretty confident that if you found a way to set it up, I could bench a couple of cars."

 _What the fuck._ I finished applying the ointment and went back to the cloth, slowly rubbing it in and wiping off the residue before laying the icepack on her lower back. She winced at the cold, stark contrast against the heat that radiated from her skin. As I stood up to get anything else that could ice her burns from my freezer, she broke the small silence.

“What were you doing on your fire escape when I changed back there anyway?”

“I just didn’t want to go in through the front with the fire across the street. I would have done it anyway, but I left my window open this morning, so I figured why not.”

“Do you do that often? And you aren’t worried about somebody getting in that way and stealing all your stuff?”

I returned with a couple bags of frozen vegetables and a sandwich bag of ice-water, laying them across her back to cover all of the burned areas she hadn’t been able to heal. “Not really. All of the stuff is replaceable anyway, plus my renter’s insurance covers theft, and my family has plenty to spare even if it didn’t. It would be inconvenient, but I doubt these apartments see much crime. Nobody ever uses that alley, except for superhero transformations apparently.”

She blushed a bit at that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

"So, what other powers do you have? Strength and the elements, anything else?"

"That's it."

"Does anyone else know?"

"My parents, obviously. A few people in the Southern Tribe. No one in the city."

"You must try pretty hard to keep it a secret." Something clicked in my mind as I thought about all the work it must take to hide being a super. "Is that what all the showing off is for? So if you slip up you can maybe play it off as you just being awesome?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's fun too, and I'm a proud person even without my powers, but I do kind of play it up. I kind of can't believe I screwed up and let you find out. You're not secretly a super villain bent on using my secret identity against me, are you?"

That made me laugh. "No, you're safe there." I bit my lip, debating voicing the next part, but decided to go ahead with it. "I actually really admire Elemental. You've done so much good for the city so quickly. Why though? Even if you weren’t going to use your powers for your own gain, you could just go about your life."

She seemed to think about that for a minute. "Well, you know, I've got powers, I guess I just feel like I should make a difference with them. I think everybody should try to make what difference they can."

I sighed. _Damn it. She really is flawless, isn’t she?_ "I completely agree." I was on my knees with my chin resting on my hands on the armrest of the couch, half mirroring her position so we could talk face to face. And that's when I realized that we were actually connecting pretty well on a personal level and groaned internally. Mako had been right. I was definitely in for some teasing later. "So, we never did get that lunch. Now that you don't have a burning building to attend to, maybe we can find a good time. Why were you so burnt up before you even got changed anyway?"

"Oh, right. Um... that burning building? That was my apartment building. I guess I'm technically homeless now."

"I'm sure the people who own the building will set all the residents up somewhere else, you'll be okay. And did you have renter's insurance for your stuff?"

"No, and they own a couple of other apartment complexes that I'm sure they'll scatter everyone through, but they're all on the other side of the city and I can't drive. I can't exactly just fly to campus every day. I mean, I could, but it'd be a bad idea. So, I was kind of wondering..." Her expression became bashful and she looked away.

"Wondering what?"

She sighed, obviously steadying her nerves. "Well, I’d ask Mako or Bolin, but they’re in dorms so I can’t, and I don't really have any other friends in town yet, especially not any girls, so... I was kind of hoping that maybe I could room with you for a little while?"

I dazed out for a moment while my mind went into a spiral. _Roommates? With the sexiest girl I have ever seen? Who is also a superhero?_  I tried to argue with myself, but I already knew what my answer was going to be. _Fuck. I am definitely going to regret this. I’m too kind for my own good._ "Yeah, okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS I think this is the longest single scene I've written. It edges out chapter 13 of Petals of Flame by about 100 words, and I can't think of any single scene that's longer anywhere else


	4. Roommates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty late. My apologies. I'll try to catch back up asap, but I kind of fell behind when I had a couple of bad days, and then I drove 700 miles to visit my girlfriend for the weekend, so I've been busy spending time with her instead of writing the past couple of days mostly. I have to drive home tomorrow, so yeah. Once I'm home, more of my time will get devoted to writing. Look forward to hopefully 2 more chapters coming out in the next like 4 days or something if I'm as awesome as I want to be <3

Korra was basically moved in as soon as I said yes. After the fire, she had almost no possessions, just what was in her bag and the few sets of clothes she had stashed around town. She made a trip around the city to gather some of them while I contacted the apartment management to let them know I was putting her up for a little while. Their policy normally limited non-resident stays to one week, but considering her situation they made an exception and gave her a full month.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a spare room since my apartment wasn't built for two, so she took the couch. I emptied one of the cabinets of my TV stand for her to keep her clothes in, then pulled down an extra blanket from the front closet. There was no reason for me to have any extra pillows, so I sacrificed one of the two from my bed for her to use. I didn't use that one much anyway.

She was out for a couple of hours, and when she returned, her gym bag still half empty. I was doing homework at my kitchen table when I heard her on the fire escape, and she climbed through the window moments later. "You should really start using the door," I teased.

"Oh, can I? I thought the building was locked, I don't have a key."

"They only lock it at night. And I got you a spare key while you were gone." I pointed to the counter where a brass colored key rested alone on its ring. "There’s an open cabinet in the living room for your clothes, and a spare drawer in the bathroom for you too."

"Oh, uh... I don't really have any bathroom stuff right now,” she admitted as she slipped the key into her bag. “Fire. And I could only take three changes of clothes from around town without messing up my layout too bad."

I followed her out into the living room, leaving my homework abandoned. "Do you need to go shopping? There's a pretty good shopping center a little ways north of here. I can take you up there."

"Can't. I don't have much money,” she explained as she pulled her few items from her bag, depositing them into the cabinet I had cleared for her. “I'm going to school on a transfer scholarship and my parents have been paying my rent, but they're not exactly rich. Saving people kind of gets in the way of holding down a regular job. I'll scrounge up a couple bucks and grab a toothbrush from the student's center and call it good."

"Are you kidding me? No way. Finish putting your stuff away, we're going shopping."

"Were you listening to me at all? I'm broke."

"Well I'm loaded. My bank account is not going to regret subsidizing your personal hygiene. Let's go."

I grabbed my bag from the hook on the wall near the door and stepped out into the hall. Korra scrambled to toss her things into the cabinet before following me out. I locked it behind us and guided her down to the main floor, then out to the street and a couple of buildings over to a parking garage. My dad kept a spot on permanent reserve for me, which is where my moped lived when I didn’t need to travel across town. I opened the storage compartment under the seat and tossed Korra the spare helmet before strapping my own on and putting the key in the ignition. She sat down behind me and wrapped her arms around my stomach, which fluttered at the thought of her hands on it. I closed my eyes and took a steadying breath and we were off.

She didn’t try to make conversation over the noise of the engine and the traffic, and we rode in relative silence the short trip to the shopping center. It wasn’t especially large, but it had everything I needed: an electronics shop, a clothing store, a hair salon, a general store, a couple of specialty shops that weren’t my style so I always kind of forgot they were there. One of those caught Korra’s eye, though, and as soon as I parked the moped, she stood up and pointed excitedly. “Oh, man! Can we stop there real quick? Just to look.”

I gazed at the store in question. “A comic book store? Korra, why would you want… oh.”

“They’re great for inspiration! Come on!” She was already taking off toward the shop’s entrance, helmet still on, but she at least came back when I called to her about it. Gear safely stored, she set off again, and I reluctantly followed.

The door swung shut behind her before I reached it, and upon opening it myself, I was assaulted with the smell of dust and cardboard. The shop’s large single room was dimly lit, just enough to read titles comfortably but not enough to read smaller text without straining. Rows of rickety, narrowly-spaced tables ran down the length of the shop, and were lined with boxes upon boxes of plastic-sleeved comic books. Each table had a double row of them, and then a matching double row on the floor underneath, and extra boxes were stacked along the walls around the room’s perimeter, all at least three-quarters full of the thin sleeves. I frowned at how dim the room was kept, even the windows were coated in a peeling layer of film that filtered the sunlight into a weak orange glow. It made the entire place seem unclean, and the musty smell from the cardboard didn’t help.

I didn’t see Korra right away, but then her hand shot up from where she was crouched underneath one of the tables, waving a comic in the air. “Ooh, Asami look!” I rolled my eyes and strode over, snatching the comic from her hand. She immediately pulled the now empty hand back down to thumb through more volumes.

I turned the package over to look at the front and had to force myself not to facepalm. The comic was for some hero named The Avatar, and his costume looked precisely like Korra’s Elemental costume, only it was orange instead of blue and had a cape. “Really?” I chided, holding the comic down to her level and gesturing to it. “Really?”

“He’s my favorite! He’s mostly about wind powers though, flight and stuff. Come on, don’t you have a favorite hero?”

“Honestly, the only one I’m particularly interested in is the one here in my own city, though I hear she’s actually a huge nerd.”

She turned around and glared back up at me for the remark, but couldn’t say anything back with the shopkeeper in earshot, even if he was leaning heavily on the counter as he scrolled on his phone. He hadn’t said a word to us since I had entered. Instead, she returned her focus to the box in front of her. “Not even when you were a kid? Every kid has a favorite superhero!”

I think back over my childhood. “Well, there was this one, I guess. I don’t remember what her name was though. She was short and blind, so everybody underestimated her, but she could _hear_ where everything was and one of her powers was to make herself completely unmovable.” I grinned at the memory. “She used to really mess some people up in the cartoons. But that was, like, over fifteen years ago.”

“You mean this?” She held up another comic, this one with a small woman in green whose head covering was a perfect dome.

“That’s her!”

“The Blind Bandit. She sounds pretty cool.”

“You don’t know about her? The cartoon used to be on every Saturday morning!”

“Nope. I’ll have to give her a read some time.”

I rolled my eyes and almost couldn’t believe I was doing this. I crouched down next to her and spotted where she had plucked the Blind Bandit comic from. The one she was holding was numbered 7, and the shop also had numbers 2, 5, 11, and 18, but the rest were missing. I gathered up what was available. “Why do they only have a few of them?”

“They just have whatever people have sold to them, basically. Most of the comics here have been out of print for years, and people collect them, so it’s pretty random what’s available. Usually there are a few volumes that sold well and had a second printing, so those tend to be the ones you can find most often.”

“Collect them?”

“Sure. You just picked up five Blind Bandit comics, if you were really into her and had like ten of them, wouldn’t you like to have the full set?”

“Of course.”

“Then you’d have to find people to buy them from. Usually on the internet is a lot easier, but it can be pretty expensive for some of the rarer ones. It’s a hobby all on its own.”

She stood up and wandered to a different box, thumbing through it as I watched her. I looked down at the Blind Bandit comics. Each sleeve had a sticker labeling it for $3. I sighed at myself. _What am I doing?_ I moved up behind her and looked over her shoulder as she held out two different comics, eyeing back and forth between them. The one on the left was for The Painted Lady, a pale figure with flowing robes and a large hat with a veil, floating over a lake. The other was The Blue Spirit, a lithe looking figure, obviously blue, with a grotesquely shaped mask and a pair of long swords that were sparking with energy of some kind.

I leaned in so that the shopkeep couldn’t hear and whispered in her ear over her shoulder. “The robes and veil would just get in your way. And what would you need swords for? What you have right now is completely functional for your power set, and I think you look good in it too.” I thought I noticed a blush color her ears, but it was hard to tell through her hair. _Maybe I’m not the only one with a crush,_ I thought to myself with a smirk. _Mako did say she likes me._

I turned away from her and made my way over to the counter, dropping the five Blind Bandit comics on it and catching the clerk completely unawares. He was apparently completely oblivious to our existence in the shop at all. “I’m buying these,” I told him clearly before turning back to Korra. “You need to see them. Pick five for yourself and let’s get the real shopping done.”

She blinked at me a few times before pointing to herself, still wearing a look somewhere between quizzical and disbelieving. I nodded. _Yes, I’m dropping $30 on comic books for **you** , Korra, who else would I be talking to? We’re the only ones here, you nerd. And it’s not like I can’t afford it._ Her expression quickly shifted to positively beaming, and she was quick to rifle through three different boxes before bringing her five comics up to the counter as well. I paid and we made our way back across the parking lot to stash our newly purchased paraphernalia safely in the storage compartment of my moped.

“General store is next,” I told her, pointing. “You need mouthwash and school supplies.”

“I need a bunch of other stuff too, but there’s no way I’m letting you drop a bunch of cash like that. I only let you do the comics cause you were getting some to match.”

“So if we both get one, it’s fine?”

“Eh, it’s better anyway. I’m less likely to feel bad. I mean, I am already bumming a room off of you.”

“Okay then,” I smiled. “Let’s get shopping.”

Nearly four hours later, the sun was just finishing setting as we finally arrived back at the apartments. We ended up getting too much to take on the moped, so I walked the vehicle home while she carried most of the bags. At least we had gotten everything that she would be needing for the near future: a full set of toiletries including shower supplies, several new sets of clothing, new school supplies, and several other less essential things that would make the mundane side of her life easier or better. She set all of the bags down in the living room, separated between her things and mine, and then took a seat on the couch next to her pile. I followed suit on the other end.

“I can’t believe you bought me a fucking laptop,” she says, pulling the box out from the bag.

“You’re the one who set the rules,” I teased, retrieving my own laptop from my pile, a different model than hers.

“I didn’t set that rule so that you would buy two laptops.”

“Well that’s what happened, so you’ll just have to deal with having a laptop for your classes now. Boo-hoo.”

“Oh shut up,” she laughed, booting her new computer up for the first time once the battery was installed and the cord attached. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

“Don’t _you_?”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” she taunted. “My apartment just burned down, so I emailed all my professors and they’re not expecting anything to be turned in until next week. Ha!”

I gave her a small glare and got up from the couch, migrating to the kitchen table to resume the homework I had been working on earlier. I worked on it for about an hour before my phone alarm went off, reminding me to text Mako about the insulator homework. I hadn’t even started it with all the stuff that had been going on. I put my English away and pulled physics out instead, typing out a quick message to Mako. He responded right away, probably had been waiting for me to get in touch, and within minutes we were on the phone and he was walking me through what he’d done for problem four. He had done it nearly correctly, his only problem was that he had forgotten to convert one of the values to the correct unit so his number was off by a couple of orders of magnitude. We chatted a bit as I worked through the other problems, and he asked a few more cursory questions about one or two of them.

When I finished the assignment, he changed the subject. “So, did you get ahold of Korra? Are you guys gonna have lunch some time?”

“Oh, um… yeah. There’s a funny story about that, actually. I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Okay? Why not now?”

“Just, later. I have to go.”

“Okay,” he huffed. “See you in class.”

After I finished talking to Mako, I remembered I had promised my dad I would call. I didn’t mind talking to Mako with Korra in the room, since it was just about homework mostly, but it felt different with my dad. “Korra?” I called across the room. She grunted in response as she continued typing on her new computer. “I’m going to step out to call my dad. Let me know if you need anything.” She grunted again, and I made my way over to the window, sliding it back open to the cool evening air and stepping out onto the fire escape. I leaned against the railing, elbows pressed to the mildly chilly metal as I typed a few digits into my phone and pressed call when my the option for my dad popped up.

He answered in the middle of the fourth ring, though he had apparently neglected to look at who was calling. “Hello?”

“Hey Dad, it’s me. I told you I’d call.”

“Of course, sweetie. How is your friend doing? And do I know this one?”

“No, and she’s okay. Her whole building burned down and all of her stuff is gone, but she made it out alright. She’s going to stay with me for a little while, and I bought her some necessities and things for school. It was a little more expensive than I was planning on, I hope you don’t mind.”

“As long as you didn’t buy her a new car, I’m sure it will be fine. Though we do have a few older models lying around if she needs one.”

“She doesn’t know how to drive, Dad. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to handle it if I did that for her anyway. She already feels guilty about accepting charity, feels like she owes me.”

“Surely she knows that friends do these things for each other, and that money in particular isn’t an obstacle for you.”

“I told her as much, although honestly… we haven’t really known each other that long. And we aren’t all that close.” I neglect to mention just how not long and not close.

“If you’re not that close, why are you letting her stay with you?”

“We have some mutual friends. She’s friends with Mako.” I hear him groan. He’s never been a big fan of Mako. “I trust her, Dad, and she doesn’t have any other female friends in the city. She needed help, so I’m helping. It’s just until she can find a new place of her own.”

“Okay, sweetie. I trust your judgement. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know, Dad. I’ll be fine. It gives us a chance to get to be better friends, too. She’s already kind of growing on me.”

“I’m happy for you. I’ll have to meet her some time if she’s going to be living with my daughter.” His inflection made it clear what he was implying and I huffed back at him.

“Dad! Please.” I wanted to tell him it wasn’t like that, but at this point that was not something I could say truthfully.

“I’m only teasing, sweetie. I would still love to meet her some time.”

“I’ll see if I can set something up. I don’t really know what her schedule’s like specifically, but I know she doesn’t have a lot of truly free time.”

“If nothing else, maybe you could bring her to the company costume party next month. I’m sure the two of you would enjoy an evening like that.”

There was that implication again. “Shut up, Dad,” I’m sure he could hear my smile through despite the harsh response. “I should get to bed, I have class early tomorrow. I’ll text you once I have a decent idea when will work to meet her.”

“Sounds good. I love you, Asami.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

I hung up the phone and sighed, climbing back in through the window before looking over at Korra. She was still in that same spot on the couch, playing with her new laptop. I walked over behind her and immediately noticed that she was playing pinball while torrenting something. “What are you downloading?”

She nearly jumped out of her skin, clearly zoned out and hadn’t noticed me approach. “Oh, I’m just getting that Blind Bandit show you mentioned. Figured I’d check it out. You wanna watch it with me this weekend, _roomie_?” She emphasized the last word overdramatically and I rolled my eyes, but I smiled anyway. _She’s actually trying to watch one of my favorite childhood shows with me. I’m doomed._

“Okay, _roomie_. I’m gonna get to bed tonight though.”

“Yeah, I probably should too.” She shut the laptop and pushed the rest of her bags to the side, then pulled out the blanket and pillow I had set out for her. I watched her arrange everything on the couch from the doorway to my bedroom, blushing and hurrying to the kitchen on the pretense of getting water when she started to strip down to her boxers and a tank top. She smiled at me on my return trip. “Goodnight, Asami. And thanks again for letting me stay here. I’d be okay out there, but I’d probably get stopped by a cop. Stupid cops.”

I couldn’t help but smile, despite the slight warmth still lingering in my cheeks. “Of course. Goodnight, Korra.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This went somewhere different than I was expecting. They were just gonna go shopping, and then a comic shop spawned, and Korra became a comic book nerd, and suddenly we have references to AtLA. Enjoy.
> 
> We're gonna be getting into a little bit more of a dense plot next time, but here's a whole bunch of domestic cuteness for right now. There won't be too much angst or anything, just enough to get some nice conflict flowing for the plot of the fic. I'm excited about it, even though this was really fun to write too.


	5. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! It's been 10 days since I've updated here and now I'm super far behind. Sorry. I'm still definitely going to finish this story asap, but there's no way it'll be done even remotely close to on time. Hopefully by mid December if I can stop getting distracted by shiny things at night when I actually have time to write.
> 
> I don't say this often enough, but heaps and tons of thank yous to my beta, Kaydt. She's always prepared to stop what she's doing (within reason) and give me a hand with things, whether it's talking out an idea or doing a bit of brainstorming or reading a chapter through something when I've finished it. And to top it off, she does all of those things _well_. Super glad to have her helping me out, she's been a serious blessing as both a writing assistant and a friend  <3

My heart rate sped up as my eyes slid open, a noise waking me up. I calmed down almost immediately, though my heart took longer to relax. I was living with a superhero, I didn’t really need to worry about intruders. As I pushed myself up out of bed, I recognized the noise as water in the pipes in the wall behind my headboard. The same noise had woken me up a couple of times the first few nights after Korra started staying with me, results of her need to pee late at night. She had been there for a week now, and I got used to it after a couple of days and had slept through it since. This was different, the water continued much longer and there was some kind of additional noise accompanying it.

I wrapped myself in a robe and shuffled over to my bedroom door, pulling it open and stepping out, squinting against the light from the kitchen even though it was around a corner. Without the extra muffling of my door, the source of the extra sound was obvious: the shower was running. I pounded on the bathroom door a few times before Korra called out, “Yeah?”

“Korra, it is three o’clock in the morning,” I shouted to her, grumpy from sleep. “I have class at eight. Why the _hell_ are you taking a shower at three a.m.?”

“Oh, uh…” The sound of the water stopped and she spoke again at a more reasonable volume. “I was getting a midnight snack and there was an… incident. I’m gonna clean it up though! Don’t go in the kitchen.”

I rolled my eyes tiredly. “Okay, whatever, just hurry up. The shower running is going to keep me awake.”

“You got it!” The rush of the running water started up again, and with no reason to return to bed while it was going, I headed for the kitchen instead to see what new disaster she had created.

I entered to a scene out of a horror movie. The walls, floor, cabinets, even the ceiling were all splattered with red, clearly originating from a single source. I leaned into the room, avoiding contact with the red mess, and quickly determined that Korra’s “incident” had occurred over the counter next to the fridge based on the patterning of the splatter. This was made even more obvious by the presence of two slices of bread, a knife, a jar of peanut butter, and the remnants of a jar of jam, which had apparently exploded. I stepped back out of the crime scene and massaged my eyelids with my fingers.

A few moments later, I heard the bathroom door open, and Korra spoke as she rounded the corner behind me. “Yeah, the lid was stuck. Remember what I said about overdoing it if I had to exert myself? Squeezed too hard and the whole thing exploded in my hand. My bad.”

I sighed. _Something like this was bound to happen some time. She did warn me, sort of._ “It’s okay, at least it wasn’t anything important. Did the glass cut you?” I removed my hands from my face as I turned around only to find her wrapped in nothing but a towel. Heat immediately rose through my neck and face before flooding my ears.

“Yeah, but I healed it up in the shower. Nothing major.” She scratched an itch on her hip, pulling the bottom edge of the towel up and down in the process. My eyes lingered at her thighs. “Guess I should get dressed and clean this up.”

I pulled my gaze away from her and back to the red goo covering half the kitchen as I struggled not to stammer. “D-Do you want any help?”

“Nah, it’s my mess, I’ve got it. Superpowers may have caused it, but they’ll make cleaning it up easy too. Besides, you’ve got class in the morning, you should get back to sleep. Sorry I woke you.”

“It happens,” I reassured her, turning to head back to my room and intentionally avoiding facing her. I hoped she didn’t noticed my flushed face too much. She followed me back into the living room, grabbing a fresh set of clothes from her cabinet before following me down the hall. I slipped into my room and turned to close the door as she made her way into the bathroom to change. She started to drop the towel before either of us had closed our respective doors, and I felt my breath catch in my chest. I slammed my door the rest of the way shut, then let my head fall against it with a thud and released a sigh.

Things like that had been happening all week. She accompanied me to the gym in shorts and a sports bra, she accidentally dropped rice down her shirt and then fished it out, she sat with her arms across the back of the couch while we watched The Blind Bandit. Most of the showers I had taken were cold. I almost thought she was doing it on purpose sometimes, but I still wasn’t entirely sure whether she had any real idea of how attractive I found her.

I pulled away from the cool wood of the door and tossed myself onto my bed. A moment later I heard her moving around the apartment, and soon after I could hear the very faint sound of water running in the kitchen. The ceiling stared back at me as I emptied my mind, but the need in my core refused to dissipate. I thought about taking care of it, um, _manually_ , but didn’t want to with Korra awake lest she hear me. Previous experience and previous partners told me I wasn’t exactly quiet most of the time.

Just as I was finally starting to doze off, a bright flash of lightning lit up my room, followed almost immediately by a colossal crash of thunder that shook the panes of glass in my window. The force of it set my nerves on edge in a fraction of a second, and I found myself wide awake. I glared at the clock on my desk across the room as heavy rain began to pour outside. Between Korra’s shower, the kitchen, and the lying awake trying to stop being horny, it was already almost five in the morning. I needed to be up in two hours to make it to my eight a.m. class, especially with the rain, and with my still nagging needs and the jitters from the storm, I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep for at least another hour. A single hour of sleep between now and class would be worse for my mood and attention span than none at all, so I decided to just get up.

I had been working haltingly for over a month on trying to improve the standard circuitry used in most of Future Industries robotics, so I decided to take this opportunity for another go at it. My dad had asked to see it a few weeks ago, so I had shared it with him since I was fairly confident in my design, but I still had this nagging feeling that there was something off about it. Spreading the schematics out on my desk in my bedroom, I pulled out my favorite pen and began chewing on the back end of it as I poured over the diagram. I hoped that the change would be able to cut down on resistance enough to noticeably increase electrical efficiency in addition to cutting production costs by a narrow margin. I had been over the calculations a half dozen times, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had missed something, so I kept coming back to the plans, reluctant to test it in a professional model until I was confident it would actually be an improvement.

My mind split into multitasking as I leaned over the paper, the plastic of my pen slowly deforming between my teeth. While part of focus stayed on my work, scanning through my designs and calculations, another part devoted its energy to making that as difficult as possible by fantasizing about Korra further. I imagined what it would be like for her strong arms to hold me close, to pick my up, to hold me down. My breathing kept growing shallow every time I would go to the effort of making it slow and deep again.

With scarcely an hour left before class, I finally found something in my plans, miraculously. I had labeled the current on one of my parallel circuits incorrectly, and would be wasting a small amount of throughput in that design. It would actually end up slightly less efficient than the system we currently had in place. Fortunately, I quickly saw an easy way to fix it. After a few tweaks to the diagram, everything lined up, and the setup was looking to be even more efficient than I had originally hoped. I would have to show Dad the next time we were both at the office. Pleased with the start to my day, I stored my schematics and went to find breakfast.

\----

The rest of my day went smoothly, or as smoothly as could be expected after it started at three in the morning. It was one of my longer days as far as class was concerned, so I wasn’t finished until three in the afternoon, too late for any work at Future Industries, and I was exhausted. Korra noticed when I arrived home, her last class having ended at two. She looked up from her laptop as I entered and slipped my jacket off. “You look terrible.”

“Thanks.”

“I just mean you look really tired. Are you okay, are you getting sick?”

“I’m fine, I just couldn’t get to sleep after I woke up last night.”

“Oh. Sorry about that, again. I’ll stick to premade midnight snacks in the future.”

“I would appreciate that. How’s the apartment hunting going?”

“Not so good. It’s the middle of the semester, so there aren’t a lot of people looking for new roommates right now, and everything else near campus is booked solid. I guess I’ll just have to keep checking in case something opens up.” She closed her laptop and leaned her head back, staring up at the ceiling as I leaned against the door frame to the jam-free kitchen. “So, uh… what are you doing tonight?”

“Well, what I want to do is take a nap, but I know I won’t sleep tonight if I do. And there’s no way I’m going to get any homework done in this state either. I guess I’m just going to try to find something mindless to do for like six hours and go to bed.”

She sat up and made eye contact. “Want to go out to dinner? I won a gift certificate to this fancy noodle place from a contest on campus.”

That brightened up my mood a little bit, but I hesitated. “I don’t know, I’m a little worried about those weird bombings the news has been reporting the past few days.”

“The ones that have been scaring the crap out of people in abandoned areas for half an hour before stopping without really hurting anything?”

“Yeah. It’s just so weird, isn’t it? Like, why? I feel like it’s some kind of test before they really blow up something major.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have the mighty Elemental with you! You’ll be completely safe. Besides, I doubt any of that will even happen tonight, the rain outside is ridiculous. Terrible night to try to carry out pointless isolated explosions.”

I laughed at her phrasing. “Okay, sure. We can go in a couple of hours, hopefully it lightens up by then.” I took a seat on the couch next to her, laying my head back and closing my eyes. “What kind of contest did you win?”

“One of those ‘guess how many things are in this jar’ ones. The geology department had it going on as part of some kind of promotional campaign they’ve been running this month, guess they’re trying to recruit more students.”

“The jar was full of rocks, wasn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“And you used your superpowers to count them without going near them.”

“Yup. There were 419 little pebbles in there. Didn’t want it to seem like I had inside knowledge, so I guessed three less than that. People will just think I’m good at guessing or got lucky.”

“I can’t believe you cheated at a simple guessing game,” I chided her, though the small smile playing at my lips probably gave me away.

Korra played video games on my system and we chatted idly, her occasional question or statement along with the sounds of the game keeping me from drifting off there on the couch. At least, for the most part. I jolted awake with a gasp when I felt Korra grab my shoulder. “Hey, it’s getting close to six and I’m getting hungry. You wanna head out to that noodles place soon?”

I blinked and stretched my eyes groggily as I yawned. “Sure. How long was I out?”

“Oh, were you really? You’ve been kind of drifting all afternoon, I just figured you were spacing again. We were talking just like twenty minutes ago, so not long.”

I yawned again and pushed myself off the couch, heading toward the front closet to get my coat back out. “At least I know I’ll sleep well tonight. Is this noodle place far?”

“Nah, not too far, about a mile. Can we still take the moped though? I don’t wanna walk in the rain.”

I scoffed at her lightly and teasingly. “You can literally control the water.”

“Yes, but I don’t while I’m around other people and out of my costume, duh. The fact that I could if I didn’t have to blend in makes walking in torrential rain even more annoying. Plus I don’t even have a rain coat. Please?”

I rolled my tired eyes at her and dug in the closet again. “Fine. And you can borrow one of my coats if you want. I know it’s not exactly your cut, but it should fit. Just try not to rip the sleeves.”

“I’ll keep the flexing to a minimum,” she promised jokingly as she took the coat I offered her. “Thanks.”

“I’m already lending you my couch, my spare coat is nothing. Now let’s get going, I’m ready for a warm meal.” I grabbed an umbrella too and we headed out.

The short trip to the restaurant was miserable. The rain was absolutely torrential, and despite our various weather protective gear, we were both soaked to the bone before we got there. It wasn’t quite sunset, but the gloomy, heavy clouds overhead made it surprisingly dark. Runoff flooded the gutters, slightly too much for the drainage system to entirely keep up with, and it spread into the streets in lower spots. Everything existed a thick haze, turning the world colorless as the endless sheets of rainwater cast all but the brightest lit signs in a dense blur.

We were both happy to arrive only a few minutes after we left. The urban traffic usually made any given journey take longer than anyone wanted, but there was almost no one on the road tonight, so the trip was manageable. We dried off in the restrooms, Korra using her powers for a little extra help when we were alone, though not enough to be suspiciously dry.

A server showed us to our table, a small one for two near the back of the restaurant that felt distinctly intimate, and I fought both the urge to blush and to roll my eyes. I perused the menu for only a moment before deciding what I was in the mood for, but Korra seemed to be in the mood for everything, and took longer to choose. She kept asking me if I had tried things before, what was in them, if they were any good. In the end, she ordered a Southern Tribe classic, despite all of her curiosity and debating. She gave the server her certificate, I gave her a twenty yuan note for a tip, and our meal arrived soon after.

“So I’m guessing this is because we never got that lunch,” I asked her teasingly.

“Well, I mean, yeah, but I also just wanted to say thanks for letting me stay with you. We hardly even knew each other and you’ve been, like, the nicest person ever.”

“It’s no problem, really. The apartment can get kind of lonely sometimes, it’s been nice to have someone else around. And it’s been nice getting to know you too, even with the sleep interruptions.”

“Ditto. And sorry about that, again. I just have a really hard time sleeping more than a few hours at a time. I kind of think it has something to do with… you know.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me. Is there anything I could do to help?”

“It’s been like that for as long as I can remember, and nothing I’ve tried has helped. Thanks though.”

I was about to ask her what things she had tried when the sound of an explosion outside made our table shake. Several car alarms began blaring immediately after, and I saw Korra’s knuckles turn white as she gripped the edge of the table. She was half out of her seat, but none of the other patrons had left their places, opting to simply turn to gaze at the building’s front panel windows instead. Bolting outside would draw too much attention to her.

Rather than focusing on the entrance, I scanned the room’s perimeter. Behind me was an empty table, and just past that was a fire exit that didn’t appear to have an associated alarm. I reached across our table and put a hand over one of Korra’s drawing her attention. I gestured with my head toward the door and she nodded. Another explosion sounded from outside, and amidst the cries and gasps from the other people in the restaurant, we slipped out the side of the building.

I checked that the coast was clear as she ducked into the corner of the alley to change. Very little checking was needed with how intense the rain was, and hardly more than a minute later she dropped her bag off with me. She leaned in and told me to stay safe before jetting herself to the top of the building next door on a column of air. I lost track of her until she came sailing down the street riding a wave of rainwater. I smiled and shook my head. “Show off.”

As I watched around the corner of the building, she found the obvious scene only a block down. Clearly the sight of a bombing, rubble littered the street along with broken glass from the building’s shattered windows. A few faces peered from nearby windows, and one couple had stopped under their umbrella across the street to watch as Elemental arrived, but otherwise the scene was conspicuously empty. She quickly doused what little flames had survived the rain, used her powers to re-strengthen the supports for the building that had been bombed, and poked her head inside to check for any civilians. She found none.

As she stepped back out onto the street, she looked around. This was clearly another one of the isolated bombings of an abandoned area, the fourth this week, and there appeared to be no sign of the perpetrator. Elemental met my gaze and shrugged slightly just before something small whizzed past her out of the building, spraying rainwater everywhere with its small mechanical wings. It dropped something at her feet, and it was a good thing that she reacted so quickly to open the ground below it and seal it underneath an asphalt dome, because less than a second later the pavement cracked as the device detonated. The small winged robot had basically dropped a grenade at her feet.

She barely had time to realize what had happened before it made a second pass at her, skimming close to her body with its clearly-sharp metallic edges. It dropped another explosive, but this one she caught on a swirl of air and hurled skyward, away from the few civilians who were quickly fleeing the area. It exploded in midair about thirty yards from her.

She turned around in time to spot the droid before its third pass. As it swooped by her, she caught both it and the bomb it deployed in globes of water she pulled from the falling rain, quickly merging them together and holding the liquid orb at a distance from herself until the explosive detonated, bursting the bubble and destroying the robot. Its fourth and apparently final explosive charge detonated from the shockwave, leaving Elemental’s mechanical attacker in pieces and everything else, including her, relatively intact. She encased the device in a block of stone made from the rubble in the street, then cautiously made her way back inside the building to check if her assailant had friends.

I ducked back around the corner that I had been watching from and leaned back against the wall, head tipped back against the brick behind me as I let the rain wash over my face. I did my best to take slow, deep breaths, trying to calm my heart rate. She had almost been killed. If she had been just a little bit slower on the draw for that first bomb, it would have caught her off guard and crippled her, leaving her as a rather easy target for the drone to bomb to smithereens.

A moment later, she sped by on her wave of water again, and I shouldered her bag as I began walking briskly toward the changing location she would be using for this area. She had walked me through all of them earlier in the week, which I supposed meant that I was officially on the inside of Elemental’s hero operation for the city. _I wasn’t really planning on becoming a sidekick,_ I laughed to myself, the stress of the event slowly dissipating, though my ominous feeling about it remained.

By the time I arrived at the alley where she had left her spare clothing, she was already waiting for me, hidden in the shadows as much as she could manage. With how intense the rain was, she had decided to change back into her already wet clothes when I arrived, rather than putting wet ones in the ground for later. Once she was dressed, she stashed the block containing her robotic attacker in her bag and took it from me, then we set off on our soggy walk back to my moped, dinner at the restaurant forgotten.

“What the heck was that,” she complained quietly to me as we walked.

“It was after you specifically,” I observed, making eye contact with her.

“Yeah. Guess it didn’t like me stopping it from whatever it was trying to do. What do you think is up with these bombings anyway? It didn’t seem like it was even trying to take that building down? And why do them at deserted places like that?”

“Because they wanted to avoid any real structural or collateral damage. I don’t think you stopped it from doing anything. I think it was _waiting_ for you. Like I said, I think it wasafter _you, specifically_. The bombs in the building were just decoys to draw Elemental out, staged somewhere that it would be unlikely to hurt any bystanders. That’s what the other pointless bombings have been about, they’ve been hoping to get you to show up. Once you were there, it came straight for you, ignoring everything else completely. Whoever sent that thing wants Elemental gone.”

The weight of my observations settled over us as we walked the rest of the way to where we had parked the moped, and the silence didn’t break until after we arrived back at the apartment. Once we were safely inside and Korra had dried us off, she pulled the stone block from her bag and set it on the kitchen table. She used her powers to open it up, and the mass of metal inside was almost unidentifiable as the original hummingbird-like contraption that had been dropping the explosives. She poked at a few of the scraps. “Maybe this can tell us something about whoever built it.”

As she held a few of the shredded metal strips up to the light to examine them, I sifted through some of the larger and more intact pieces. I could relatively easily make out the wings despite them being completely crumpled, and the mechanisms for holding and releasing the explosives were crushed but identifiable. Presumably the devices had been programmed to detonate remotely a fixed period of time after deployment. Several of the inner workings of the contraption were still largely whole, including one of the circuit boards connecting the internal processing unit to the motors that drove the mechanics. I was a little surprised that it had survived two explosions like that, the drone must have been built well, but there was something else about it that caught my attention.

It was wired using precisely the old version of the circuit that I had edited that morning. _Maybe I won’t sleep well tonight after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh
> 
> Next time: Chapter 6 - Love


	6. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's been a month but I'm finally posting again! I'm still working on this, really! The past month has just been really crazy and busy, and it's going to be crazier and busier for at least a little while. More info after what you're actually here for!

I told Korra that the wiring seemed odd and that I would take a look at it, that I might be able to figure something out. Not long after that, I told her I was going to bed and excused myself, taking the heart of the drone with me. She believed me, she had no reason not to and she knew I was exhausted. But I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. Instead, I sat up, first in bed and then moving to my desk, pulling out the circuitry diagram and hunching over it in the semi-darkness. Possibilities ran through my mind in an endless loop. _It could be concurrent development, that happens. Or just a coincidence. Maybe Dad mentioned it to someone and the culprit caught wind of it and snuck into the apartment to lift the design. Or my room or Dad's office could be bugged. Or maybe he was going to have a prototype of it put together to surprise me and someone at Future Industries built this thing._

None of those thoughts could stop me from returning to my first thought though. There were too many maybes on the other explanations. The only scenario that didn't require any extra outside events or sheer dumb luck was also the one that turned my stomach the most. Me and my father were the only ones who knew about this design, and I certainly didn't make a bomb droid bent on eliminating Elemental. Which meant that my dad did. I desperately tried to convince myself otherwise, but the pit in my stomach made it impossible.

My own father, out to kill a superhero? Out to kill _anyone?_ I couldn't believe it, but I couldn't find anything else I could believe either. Why? I knew he was upset about what happened with Captain Boomerang, but he'd never seemed to have any problems with any of the world's other supers. _No, it must be some kind of coincidence. There's probably some other logical explanation and I'm just too tired to think of it. I'll take it with me and ask him about it tomorrow._

I put the circuit board and my design in my bag and finally laid down. Despite my exhaustion, the events of the evening kept my head in a haze, and as I had expected, sleep didn't come easily. I eventually managed to drift off, hours later.

\----

Korra tried to wake me up for class in the morning when my usual waking time came and went, but I told her I was skipping because I needed the sleep. She seemed surprised, but didn't press the issue, just told me to rest well then went back to her morning. She was gone, presumably to her own class, when I got up shortly after nine. I decided to just skip the rest of my classes for the day as well and head straight to Future Industries. I wouldn't have been able to focus on lectures with my worry about my dad's involvement in the attack on Elemental anyway.

As I parked my moped and headed inside, I checked my phone and saw I had a text from Korra. 'Saw you left your laptop and homework on the table, going into work?' I smiled that she'd paid enough attention to notice, since my school things dominated the table almost constantly. But I always took my laptop to class with me, and I had mentioned to her that I wanted to ask the instructor about one of the problems. I had heard roommates often picked up on each other's schedules even without talking about it, but I didn't think she would catch so many details or catch on to it so quickly. It made me feel kind of warm and fuzzy.

'Yeah, I think I might be able to learn some stuff about that wiring. I'll let you know if I find out anything' I texted back. As ever, her response was immediate. I was starting to wonder if she had superhuman texting powers that she hadn't told me about. 'Awesome, thanks. Drive safe'.

I smiled again and stashed my phone in my bag, then walked quickly through the halls the rest of the way to my dad's office. I took a deep breath, then knocked firmly three times. He called ‘Come in’ and I pushed the heavy oak door open. I poked my head inside, my hair swinging in front of my shoulder. "Hey Dad. Can I talk to you for a minute, if you're not too busy? It's kind of important."

"Of course, sweetie," he smiled, waving me into the room. I closed the door behind me and took a seat in one of his guest chairs across the desk from him. "What is it?" His expression grew more serious. "Is that new roommate of yours giving you trouble? Do I need to have a word with her?"

"No, Dad, it's nothing like that. She's been fine. It's just... last night, I was out having dinner, and one of those victimless bombings went off nearby."

His expression grew grave, and there was something almost frantic in his eyes. "You weren't hurt, were you? Or was she?" Of course he would worry about me immediately.

"No, but... Elemental showed up to check it out and make sure no one got hurt, but when she did, some kind of hummingbird drone attacked her." A crease formed between his brows, but he didn't make to speak, so I continued. "She destroyed it using one of its own bombs, and I was curious, so I took it home to check it out." I trailed off, leaving out any details that would hint at Korra’s secret identity.

When I didn’t continue, he spoke instead, prompting me further. “Did you discover something? Why come to me about it instead of the police?”

I hesitated, then pulled the circuit board from my bag and set it on the desk. “Yes, I discovered something. I thought you might be able to help me with it.” I retrieved my circuitry designs from my bag as well and unfurled the paper next to the circuit board. His grip on the arms of his chair tightened. “The drone’s wiring matches the new design I’ve been working on for Future Industries perfectly.”

He was silent for a long moment, his gaze locked on the blueprints, until he looked up to meet my eye. “What do you think I could do to help you with this?”

I chose my words carefully, trying to avoid sounding accusatory. “I’m just confused about how that happened. You’re the only other person I showed this to. Did you share it with anyone else? Or mention it to anyone?” I could see the wheels turning in his head, and I hoped with everything I had that he would realize that he had, that he would tell me the name of the person he had shown it to, that we could confront them together.

Instead, he sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of his nose, elbows pressed into the armrests. "Do you think I was involved in these bombings?"

I grew even more hesitant. "I guess I don't know what to think. It seemed like the drone was waiting for her, like she was its real target. I don't know why anyone would want to hurt her, she's done so much good in so little time."

He sat still as stone for a moment before sitting forward instead, hands clasped on the desk as he leaned on it. "Asami... do you remember what happened with Captain Boomerang?"

My heart shriveled, but I still couldn’t believe it. Maybe he was going somewhere else with this. "Not really, I was so young. I just know what everyone else knows I guess: that he just disappeared one day after a failed rescue attempt in a collapsing building and never came back."

He sighed heavily, casting his gaze down at his desk before speaking again. "Your mother was one of the people he failed to rescue that night.” He looked back up at me, and the stare he fixed me with was intense. “She could have been saved. If proper procedure had been followed, if the emergency workers hadn't stayed back to let the _great Captain Boomerang_ ,” he said the name mockingly, “do his work, she would still be here today."

My mouth was dry, but I tried to break in anyway. "Dad, they couldn't have--"

"And his abandonment of the city was worse!” He was practically raving now, standing behind his desk, one hand braced against it while the other gestured. “Everyone relied on him, trusted that he would be there to save them. The city's infrastructure was built around it: the emergency response was understaffed, the police were under trained! And when he decided to leave, he gave no warning! He didn't help to ensure that the city could sustain itself in his absence. He left us to ruin.” He sat back down, his expression grim as he glared at the wall behind me. “Crime filled the streets, gangs took over the districts and neighborhoods in constant turf wars, disasters claimed more lives than ever. I love Republic City. Future Industries was already a major player then, and we have been cleaning up Captain Boomerang's mess for fifteen years. The city I love is finally on its feet again. And now this 'Elemental' shows up. Just like him: powerful, reckless, with abilities to fill almost any need."

A chill ran down my spine. It couldn’t be real. The father I loved and who had loved me with everything he had… He couldn’t really be doing this. "Dad, what are you saying?"

His glare didn’t waver. "She'll be just the same. The city still remembers Captain Boomerang, still worships him for his supposed heroism. The city hasn't changed. They'll rely on her for everything, fail to take care of themselves. And then when she fails - and she will fail, everyone fails - then people will suffer. And when she’s gone, the city will fall to chaos again. I can't allow that to happen, I can't let another family suffer like ours did after your mother…” His shoulder slumped and his eyes refocused on me, his expression growing sad. “I built that drone, Asami. I sent it to attack Elemental, to drive her away if possible and eliminate her otherwise. I am sorry. But it's what the city needs. It's what we all need."

My mind reeled from the revelation. All my fears from the previous night were true. "What? N-No. You can't..." I struggled with how to reason with him. I wanted to tell him about Korra, about how selfless and dedicated she was, but I couldn't give away her secret. "You should... you should run ad campaigns about the importance of being self-sufficient. You should fund police training, you should form your own emergency response team, you should talk to the President--"

"I have, sweetie. I have been doing all of those things for more than a decade.” I had never seen him look more tired, and he hadn’t looked that sad in years. “Yet as soon as Elemental began her work, I began to see the changes in the citizens and the city.” Conviction grew in his voice again, as if he were pleading with me. “We need to be rid of her now, before everyone is addicted to a super guarding them again."

I stammered for another solution, for some way to convince him that she wasn’t bad for the city. "Maybe you could talk to her, maybe there's some way she could--"

"No, Asami. She must go. And I will remove her, one way or another." I held my head in one hand, my mind reeling as I struggled to grasp what he had told me while also trying to argue against it. My breathing was labored as I stared at the floor. "I love you, Asami. I know that this may be abhorrent. But it must be done, and I am the only one to do it. I am sorry."

I wanted to run. I wanted to bolt out of the room, call Korra, tell her everything. But instead I stayed frozen in that chair in my dad's office, his sad eyes, full of conviction, burning a hole through the top of my head. I slid my other hand into my hair as well, gripping at the roots. "I... I love you too, Dad... I-I need to go. I still have a class that I need to make it to," I lied.

"Are you sure?" He asked, rising from his chair more gently this time. "You seem quite shaken by this. I knew you would be. I didn’t want you to know if you didn’t have to, but you’ve always been even more observant and clever than I give you credit for. Perhaps you should take the rest of the day off, rest. I can get you some water."

"No, I'm okay," I insisted, standing up myself and moving toward the door. I felt sick and was sure I looked it too. "I really need to go. I'll call you later."

His shoulders slumped again. He seemed defeated. "Alright, sweetie. I'll talk to you later, then. Be safe. I love you."

I pulled his office door open and rushed out.

\----

The knock on my door pulled me out of my daze. I turned my head to the side, hair tugging at my scalp due to being trapped between my head and the pillow, and glanced at the clock. I'd been staring at the ceiling for half an hour. "Asami?" Korra's voice called. "Are you feeling okay? The bathroom smells like puke."

Despite my light-headedness and my stomach twisting in on itself, I had managed to make it home from my meeting with my dad before throwing up. My stomach was still tight to the point of cramping even though it had been nearly an hour since I had escaped his office. I considered keeping silent from Korra, pretending to be asleep, but in the end I didn't. "Yeah, I'm okay.”

"Are you sure? Can I come in?"

"Sure." I heard the door open, and turned my head to face her as she poked her head inside.

"You don’t seem very okay. And you threw up.”

I grit my teeth before answering. “It just came on really suddenly. I’m doing better now, just a little nauseous.”

She seemed melancholy as her gaze fell to the floor, but after a moment of silence her expression brightened, a new perk to her voice. "Well, you're lucky I'm here! I'm going to make you some soup, you'll feel better in no time. I'll be right back!"

By the time I pushed myself up a bit, she was already gone before I could say anything. I flopped back to stare at the ceiling again, butterflies suddenly fluttering around the tense ball of worry in my stomach. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that I liked Korra. And not the way I used to. Of course, she was still incredibly attractive physically, but after getting to know her over the past week, everything else drew me to her as well. Her cockiness started to feel more like confidence, she was caring and protective and stood up for what she believed in. She wore her heart on her sleeve, she knew how to have fun with anything and be bored anywhere. She was the strongest person I had ever seen, but worked every day to be gentle with those around her. She was unexpected in every way and everything about that excited me. The butterflies started to crowd out the worry.

The weirdest part was that I _knew_ she liked me too. Mako had told me on numerous occasions over the past week, and as my feelings for her changed, he kept pushing me to say something to her, saying she was nervous about alienating me and so she would never make the first move. But what would I even say? She was freeloading on my couch for what looked more and more like another three weeks, and she was a superhero. Even if I did ask her out and she said yes, everything about transitioning to dating her would be awkward. Having her continue to sleep on the couch then would feel wrong, but inviting her into my bed would be premature and make things incredibly weird at the end of the month. And how would dating a superhero even work? She would be running off at a moment's notice to save the city, and I couldn't and wouldn't stop her, so I would just be left alone. And then there was the classic issue of villains using a hero's loved ones against them. I wasn't even well versed in fictional heroes and I was familiar with that one. She would be putting me in danger, and I would be her weakness. No, I wasn't going to ask her. Maybe later on, when the apartment thing wasn't an issue, and if those other problems got better somehow.

As these thoughts ran through my head for at least the third time that week, I heard the sounds of dishes in the kitchen. Minutes later, she shouldered my door open as she made her way back into the room with two bowls, steam rising from them. "Chicken noodle! Nothing fancy, but it's the best when your stomach's mad at you." She passed me one of the bowls as she sat down on the end of my bed and I held it in my lap, letting the warmth seep into my hands.

As I watched her blow on her soup before sipping it, my mind decided to imagine a future with her. _The two of us sitting together like this for meals, maybe a movie that we aren't really watching on in the background, plans for a trip to_ _Ember Island later that month passing between us pleasantly. I ask her about her latest rescue, she always texts me when she's starting one and I keep the news on for it but her account is so much more complete and heartfelt. She asks me about work._

Work. Future Industries. Dad. If he had his way, Korra wouldn't have a future, or at least not in Republic City. He was wrong about Elemental and the city, I just knew it. I had to think of some way to convince him. But it was clear that he had come to his conclusion over the course of years since the death of my mom. I wasn't sure that anything I said would make a difference. And unless I could change his mind, he would still be working to find and eliminate Elemental. _I should tell Korra,_ I thought again, as I had nearly every ten minutes since Dad had told me.

My gaze refocused on her. She was slurping as she ate her soup, humming in satisfaction as its warmth spread into her. The day was still cold and wet from the previous night's storm. She turned to face me and smiled, though that smile faded somewhat after a moment. "Hey, come on, you should eat. You're letting your soup get cold. Here." She reached out and put her hand on the underside of the bowl between my hands, and I slowly felt the broth surge from lukewarm back to a pleasant heat. Her smile returned.

"Thanks," I said, trying to return the smile but mostly failing as I picked up my spoon. A few mouthfuls seemed to satisfy her and she returned to her own meal. Then I spoke up again. "Hey, Korra... what are you planning on doing when we figure out who sent that robot last night?"

Her brow furrowed and she looked up at where my wall met my ceiling. "You know... I don't know. I guess I hadn't really thought that far ahead, specifically. Probably try to find them, figure out what their plan was, make them stop." The hand that wasn't holding her soup clenched into a fist. "Why do you ask? Did you find out something from that circuit thing?"

"No, not really just yet" I lied. "Just curious. But, hypothetically... what if it was someone important? What if it was, like, Chief Lin Beifong? Or the President himself?"

"Status doesn't matter," she said matter-of-factly and with no hesitation. "If they're causing harm, they need to be stopped."

"What if it was someone close to you?” I tried to think of an example that wasn’t one of her own parents. “What if it was Mako?"

She frowned at that one, and didn't respond so quickly. "I don't know. If it was Mako, I mean... he would still need to be stopped. I guess I'd at least try to talk to him first, to change his mind or work something out."

"And if that didn't work?"

"Then I'd do whatever I had to." She didn't even hesitate. I struggled not to sigh. I couldn't tell her. Not until after I had another chance to talk to my dad. I knew Elemental wouldn’t convince him, not on her own. But I might. And knowing Korra might help. "Do you really think whoever sent it is out to kill me though? I mean, why? I haven't hurt anything, have I?"

"No, you haven't." I really believed that, despite what my father said. "But I do think they’re at least trying to hurt you. That drone wasn't messing around."

"Do you think they'll go after civilians? Not many people are willing to go after a super unless they're pretty twisted and powerful themselves." She had no idea.

"No, at least I really doubt it.” The words were out of my mouth before I had time to think them through. My mind raced. _Why not? What would make sense?_ “The sites of the bombings to lure you out were obviously chosen very carefully since none of them caused any injuries at all. I think it's just you." _What if it isn’t though? He’s willing to sacrifice her. Would it really be so different for him to be willing to sacrifice a few citizens too?_ I realized and immediately tried to come to terms with the fact that I couldn’t trust my father, that I didn’t know him like I thought I did.

"That's so weird. That's nothing like a typical super villain. They're usually all about chaos and destruction. I wonder what we're dealing with here."

"I don't know." That one felt less like a lie than the others.

"Well, I'm glad you're here to help me. I don't think I would have thought through it all like you did, and I definitely couldn't have figured out anything from the scraps of that drone. I kind of want to make you my partner." After a moment, her words caught up with her, and her cheeks colored. "I mean, sidekick! Kind of, except you wouldn’t really be my sidekick because I wouldn’t be above you. I mean, I wouldn’t be in charge! What I’m trying to say is that you're really super helpful and nice and gorgeous, I mean generous, and--"

"Korra!" I grabbed her arm and she stopped abruptly. My cheeks were almost certainly flushing equal to hers. "It's okay, I know what you mean. Thank you."

Her blush deepened and her attention returned to her now empty soup. "You've just been so great to me. I mean, I've had other friends and stuff, Mako and the rest of the team, but you let me live with you, you bought me all this stuff... you're a great roommate, and an incredible friend."

I held up my half empty bowl of soup as an example. “You’re a pretty good roommate too. Even if you do occasionally wake me up in the middle of the night and trash the kitchen while making PB&J.” She laughed at that, then reached over and warmed my soup again.

“You seem like you’re feeling better.”

“I am. Thank you.”

“All I did was bring you soup, but you’re welcome.” _Right. She thought I was just unexpectedly nauseous. She doesn’t realize she perked me up after I learned my father is trying to kill her._ She was quiet again while I finished off what was left of the meal, and then she started fidgeting. “I guess I should probably let you get back to your day. I bet you’ve got a lot of homework and studying to do to catch up since you went to work instead of class.” She started to stand up. “I can just--”

“No,” I interrupted. It sounded desperate, almost panicked, and it seemed to surprise her as much as the feeling surprised me. “I… I could use some company.” I didn’t know what else to say, and she didn’t seem able to respond. I managed to break the silence when I realized we were just staring at each other. “Do you want to watch more of The Blind Bandit?”

She grinned. “Sure.” She followed me to the living room. I sat down on the couch, and she took her seat next to me and pulled out her laptop, setting it on the coffee table as she started the show up. She sat back, and I scooted over near her for a better view of the screen. Before long, she leaned back farther into the couch, spreading her arms across the back like she liked to do. What surprised me was when one of those arms fell across my shoulders and she hugged me lightly against her side. _Maybe Mako was wrong about her never making the first move._ I laid my head on her shoulder and angled slightly into her embrace. It was the warmest I had felt all week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I lost one of my two jobs this month, and with it went about 40% of my income. I need to find a new job asap to make ends meet, so I'm going to be putting out a ton of job apps, and between that and other life stuff, I really shouldn't be devoting a ton of time to writing at the moment. I'm probably going to be taking a bit of a hiatus from writing. Hopefully I can still find chunks of time to put in for it to relax, but it might be a while before chapter 7 makes an appearance. I'm still definitely finishing this work asap though, before getting back to my other stuff, and if the job situation goes the way I hope it does, I should have even more time to write and be even more relaxed before too long. Wish me luck in my job hunt, and you're welcome for no cliffhanger this time. It's a rare thing from me, it seems.
> 
> Let me know what you think of this situation with Hiroshi, your hopes for Korra/Asami, and how you think Asami will handle all of this craziness in the comments! I literally always love to hear from you guys. Write me a sentence or a paragraph or an essay, doesn't matter. I'm passionate about my stories and it excites me when you are too. Looking forward to hearing from you!
> 
> Chapter 7: Costumes - Coming TBD
> 
> PS. The "every chapter is longer than the previous one" trend continues, even if chapter 6 is only 89 words longer than chapter 5 xD


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